


xiii. breathe in breathe out

by tempestaurora



Series: the kids aren't alright [whumptober 2020] [13]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Beach Trip, F/M, Fluff, Pre-Canon, Rated teen for language, Whumptober, they're in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:15:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26990503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tempestaurora/pseuds/tempestaurora
Summary: Not breathing, somehow, became instinctual to Diego.Sometimes, he didn’t even realise he was doing it.“It’s creepy,” Eudora informed him, and that was that.OR: a beach trip with Diego and Eudora when they're young and happy and in love, featuring Diego's most creepy of powers: the ability to just... not breathe.
Relationships: Diego Hargreeves/Eudora Patch
Series: the kids aren't alright [whumptober 2020] [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1930186
Comments: 25
Kudos: 114





	xiii. breathe in breathe out

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Delayed Drowning--lol I didn't follow any of the prompts fuck that this is a cute fic i love diego and eudora i would literally DIE for them

There were truths in Diego’s life that he knew without a doubt: he would never drown, he would never asphyxiate, he would never have trouble sitting at the bottom of the swimming pool for hours on end, scaring the hell out of the lifeguards in the process. Or, well, he might have trouble with the memories of the tank he’d been locked in as a child, forced to drown over and over until he learnt to hold his breath instead – but he’d never have trouble with the breathing.

Not breathing, somehow, became instinctual to him along the way.

Sometimes, he didn’t even realise he was doing it.

“It’s creepy,” Eudora informed him, lying on the beach with her head on his chest. They were twenty, happy, and on their first vacation together.

Diego snorted out a laugh. “It’s creepy?”

“Terrifying,” she replied, all serious, though he peered down at her to spot the upwards tilt of her lips through his sunglasses. “I wake up in the middle of the night and it’s like you’re _dead._ ”

Diego rolled his head back again. “If I die, it’ll be a blaze of glory,” he informed her. “So you have nothing to worry about.”

“Oh, I think that statement has given me a whole new worry,” Eudora replied with a laugh. “ _If_ you die? Are you planning on just _not?_ ”

Diego grinned. “What, like _you are?_ ”

“I’m not— _planning_ on it,” she said, laughing and sitting up. Eudora adjusted the strap of her bikini, smiling down at him. “It’s just part of life, Diego.”

“Debatable,” he replied mildly, though he knew she was right. The inevitability of death was drilled into him young; he faced it now without much worry. One day, he would die. One day, they all would. Hopefully, it would be many years away from this moment with the love of his life.

“You wanna swim?” Eudora asked, and Diego sat up to look out at the ocean. Across the waves, grey clouds were gathering. Though it was sunny right now, they’d been hearing warnings from surfers and the hotel employees alike that a storm seemed to be rolling in. Diego didn’t know much about the weather though, and it looked like they still had a few hours of warm sunshine left before the rain reached them.

“Sure,” he decided and climbed to his feet, brushing off the sand from his legs. Eudora clasped onto his outstretched hands and he pulled her up, leaning down to kiss her when she was standing.

He was no fool; Diego was lucky to have Eudora. She was intelligent and hilarious and all kinds of gorgeous, and somehow, she was willing to take a chance on the guy with trauma so tightly packed into his body he ran scared when she first said she loved him. Though he knew there was stress weighing on their relationship; he’d been receiving more disciplinary measures at the academy recently, and was on thin ice with staying on track to becoming a detective; he was almost certain that they’d make it through together.

Eudora Patch was it for Diego Hargreeves. He would do absolutely anything to make sure that he was it for her, too.

She smiled up at him and linked their fingers together as they headed down towards the water. It pooled around their ankles, the tide washing in and out over the soft, white sand.

The beach was mostly empty, bar a few other families, and so the sound of the water and wind was all-encompassing. They walked together into the water, laughing at the cold, until a large wave drenched them both.

Eudora laughed as Diego picked her up, swinging her into the next wave.

“Human shield!” he yelled as the wave crashed across them; Eudora laughing and squealing and kicking her legs through the water. He’d never had this; never thought he _would_ have this. Water for him had always been dingy and dark and the scary kind of cold. It had taken two years for him to go swimming again, for Diego to work up the courage to face the local community swimming pool and not bolt at the first smell of chlorine.

Eudora had been with him for that, too.

And now he was here, and water was less of a deeply terrifying nightmare and more of something to wonder at, to marvel. Eudora loved watching nature documentaries, particularly about sea creatures, and together they binged hours of footage of whales and sharks and coral reefs, and somewhere along the line, he stopped seeing that deep navy blue as the tank, as his father’s distorted face, as his mother’s awaiting towel, and began associating it with a different life entirely.

They swam out until the water lapped at their chests, and Diego kept hold of Eudora’s hand as she kicked up onto her back and floated over the rolling waves.

“You could just live down there,” she said, and Diego tugged her gently back when she started floating away. “With the whales.”

“You really like whales, huh?”

“They’re my favourite,” she replied. “But I’m serious. You could just go down there and live with them all.”

“Might get eaten,” Diego said. “Or freeze to death. Die from the pressure. But, yeah, I could live with my head dunked underwater for the rest of time.” The rest of time was probably pushing it, but Diego’s record was thirty-nine hours, at which point he gave up because he was starving and bored and needed out.

“You should inform the Guinness Book of World Records.”

“They might classify me as a cheater, because I’m genetically enhanced to hold my breath,” Diego replied. “But yes, I would like to give a hearty _fuck you_ to that twenty-two-minute asshole who thinks he’s the winner.”

Eudora laughed and Diego felt warm inside for causing it. He followed her gaze upwards; the grey clouds were coming in much faster than he’d expected.

“Mm, I guess no one knows about that power of yours,” Eudora continued a moment later. “It was never mentioned in the comics.”

“Academy groupie,” Diego said lightly.

“Am not.”

“Creepy mega fan.”

She grinned. “I only had the comics.”

“And the action figures.”

“And the lunchbox,” she allowed. “Never expected Number Two to roll up to the first day of police academy training, though.” Eudora lowered herself back to her feet and cupped his cheek with her free hand. “Never expected Number Two to grow up so hot, either.”

Diego grinned and kissed her, his creepy mega fan.

When she pulled back, Eudora added, “Number Four was my favourite though,” and darted away. Diego chased her, catching up easily and grabbing her around the waist, pulling her into his chest.

“What was that?” he asked, tugging them both back to towards the shore, where the waves were less rolling hills and more crashing and breaking. Eudora laughed and struggled as he pulled her into the way of a breaking wave. Sea foam splashed over them.

“ _Diegoooo,_ ” she laughed, before relaxing in his arms and tipping her head back onto his shoulder, so she could see him. “He could see _ghosts._ ”

Diego rolled his eyes. “And I can throw knives _super well._ ”

“Sure and that’s hot,” she agreed. “But as a twelve-year-old, it was the absolute coolest thing in the world that The Séance could talk to ghosts.”

Diego rolled his eyes and turned them so the next big wave didn’t crash over her. He pressed a kiss against her cheek. “But now I’m your favourite, right?”

“Obviously, Diego,” Eudora replied, slipping out of his lax grip. Then she grinned. “Unless Klaus is free sometime?” She was running back into the shallows before he processed the words, and then he was barking out a laugh and chasing after her, all the way up onto the sand, to where they’d left their towels and clothes.

They laughed and kissed and Diego committed the moment to memory. Never in his life could he have imagined this; could have imagined _her._ Eudora made him want to be better, and braver, and kinder. They’d moved in together a few months before, had made plans for their future and bought furniture they both liked. He’d taken her to the mansion only twice, both for dinners with Mom when he knew Reginald would be out of town, and somehow felt safe and comfortable enough with her by his side to take her on the tour of the old building, from his childhood bedroom down to the tank room that was now drained and derelict after half a decade without use.

He’d grown faster since meeting Eudora than he ever had at home; had learned how to better listen and show appreciation, show care. He’d never been great at gift giving, so Eudora gave him lists every time an anniversary came around – but he knew that her favourite present had been on a random Tuesday when he’d given her a hot pink hairbrush with a knife in the handle; and she had cracked up so hard and kissed him so happily and he knew that she loved it, because he had chosen it, had seen it and thought of her and didn’t need a list to get it right.

Diego was still scared of taking that next step, though he had secretly stared at the rings in the windows of jewellery shops, but he knew that it would be a lot less terrifying knowing he’d be taking that step with Eudora.

They pulled apart when it started to rain.

Eudora sighed, barely untangling herself, and tipped her head back to stare up at the cloud overhead. “It was nice while it lasted,” she mused.

Diego hummed, the rain pattering across his shoulders. “Doesn’t have to end yet. Do you remember that café we passed on the way here?”

“The one with all that ivy growing up the walls?”

“Mhm.”

Eudora smiled up at him. “Coffee?”

“Would love some.”

They collected their clothes, pulling them back on hastily as the rain picked up, and bundled their towels and things into a pile, rushing away from the shoreline and towards the town. It was tipping it down by the time they found the café again, and Eudora’s hair was plastered to her face, Diego soaked through from the rain and the sea.

They took their coffees to a table by the window, where they could people watch and talk quietly about work and memories and sitting underwater for hours at a time.

“It’s still scary at night,” she said, and Diego laced his fingers with Eudora’s over the table top.

“Then wake me up,” he replied. “I won’t mind.” She seemed to consider this for a moment, consider him, so Diego added, “I _want_ you to wake me up if you’re worried about me not breathing. I mean, if I die, it won’t be in my sleep, but—”

Eudora laughed and Diego grinned, because that was what he was going for. Eudora swiped his coffee, as she’d finished hers, and possibly Diego would’ve said _I love you_ in this moment, as he’d taken to doing several times a day, but instead he said, “I’ll get you another coffee,” which basically meant the same thing anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> thank u for reading!!!! pretty please talk to me in the comments and you can yell at me about the umbrella academy on tumblr at tempestaurora.tumblr.com
> 
> tomorrow is about vanya and the apocalypse but let's just spend time in today, where diego and eudora are both alive and in love


End file.
